I want my baby back, baby baby, back back. The babies are growing up right before our eyes. I’m sure we are going to blink and they’ll be toddlers. Everyday it seems they are trying or doing something new. It’s very cool.

If I could use one word to describe Cole it would be incredible. He’s super inquisitive. When he looks at something he really analyzes it, staring intently, then without notice, he’ll lunge at whatever object he was studying and wrap his mouth around it. It reminds me of watching those animal documentaries where the lion stalks it’s prey before the kill. From the pictures we’ve posted, you’ve already seen he’s always smiling. He loves to laugh and smile. He’s super ticklish. It’s very easy to get some good belly laughs out of the boy. At night when he’s just beat and about to cry for the sake of being too tired, I can usually can get a smile out of him by dancing or making some crazy sounds. His new thing is seeing a bottle on the floor and grabbing it, and sticking the nipple in his mouth. We’re going to try him on the sippy cup next week. Big changes. He’s also starting to pull up on things. He so badly wants to pull himself up, but he doesn’t have the strength or dexterity yet (oye, if only he was a 12th level mage). He’s really taking after the old man, he loves to sleep in. When I finally wake up in the morning the babies are usually in their bouncy chairs in front of the TV watching Baby Einstein. When Cole sees me for the first time in the morning he tries to eject himself out of his chair to get to daddy. That’s my boy.

Cole is still living up to his nickname squirmy wormy. We gave him his first mommy and Cole bath tonight. Other than him trying to jump out of mommy’s lap, crying because he got water in his eyes, and puking because he got some water in his mouth, the bath was fabulous. Our big guy is so active he can’t sit still. Okay technically that’s not true, today the occupational therapist got him to sit for 45 seconds unassisted. Very nice! Cole is also crawling and rolling everywhere. If there is something on the floor that shouldn’t be there, Cole can find it. I can have my laptop on the floor across the room, out of the way and he’ll still make his way over to it. Most of the times when you are just trying to hold him and chill out, he’s jumping trying to get higher on your body. When he sleeps, he gets in the weirdest positions you have ever seen. I could walk in his room every 10 minutes for an hour and he would probably be in 6 different positions in 6 different spots of his crib. In fact, it’s getting harder to feed him at night because after an ounce or two, he’ll try flipping over in your arms because he still thinks he’s in his crib. When he first started sleeping on his belly we were terrified of SIDS. This kid seriously had has face pressed into the mattress. How could he breathe and more importantly, how is this comfortable for him? Luckily back then we had a lot of hospital monitors hooked up to him while he slept. Now it’s par for the course. I can only imagine how active he is going to be in the coming years. I already have visions of him making a parachute and trying to jump off the second floor of the house (I already have the fastest route the hospital mapped out).

Cole loves his sister. He can spot her across the room and make a bee line for her. If he sees she is playing with a toy, Cole must have it. We’ve caught him trying to take her toys on more than one occasion. Sometimes I thin Cole thinks Paige is toy. He just wants to climb on, pinch, and pull on her.

He also loves it when the dogs bark (and he’s not asleep). Every time Homer barks at the door (which is more than we would like), Cole starts laughing. We can even make woof woof sounds and it entertains him. I think he’s going to really like playing with the dogs when he’s older.

His eating still sucks. Okay I wish he sucked, but that’s the problem. We get the majority of his feeds when he’s 1/2 asleep. That means we are still up at all hours of the night. Calgon take me away! He just doesn’t get that hungry and doesn’t really like taking the bottle. So we sucker him into feeding when he’s 1/2 awake and 1/2 in dream land. His volume is still all over the map. We’ll have a great couple of days feeding then some really bad days. I have to be honest, it still gets us down when he doesn’t eat well. We try extra hard to get whatever calories we can in him those days, but most of the time it feels like a losing battle. If it wasn’t for Tobie’s persistence in trying to get calories in the boy, I’m sure we would have had him tubed by now. The good news is he’s getting better at eating baby food. We’re supplementing everything we give him so it really doesn’t matter that much if he takes in more mush than liquid. Maybe next month we’ll be able to give him more baby food than the bottle. Lots can happen in a month. I’m guessing he’ll be just under 17 pounds on his birthday.

More on Paige later.

I know you come for the pictures, but please do stay for the blogging.

Busy busy day today. I think it will be the last time Tobie schedules 3 appointments in one day. We started the day with a GI appointment. Cole’s weight gain isn’t spectacular, but it’s better than it was previously. Whatever Tobie’s feeding him, it’s working. Cole’s right around 15 pounds 10 ounces. It seems like he’s been a hair over 15 pounds forever. We are going to try Cole on a different constipation medicine. He has trouble taking the lactulose which is kind of weird. Lactulose has a corn syrup consistency, but for some reason, Cole chokes on it. Strange, but it happens. Dr. S doesn’t want to see us for 3 months. Yowsers! It’s like these doctors are trying to get rid of us! Can you imagine, we won’t have any doctor’s appointments for months and months. It’s like we have real babies! Real babies I tell you!

Right after the GI appointment we had an OB appointment. I’ll get back to that appointment in a minute. So after the OB appointment we had a pulmonology appointment for both babies. I was looking at the doctor’s notes from that appointment. On Paige’s, it says ‘No Change’ in about 3 spots. Nice! They are effectively done with her! We are going to wean Cole off his diuretic and watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn’t accumulate any fluid. Cole still shows some signs of chronic lung disease so we really need to make sure he doesn’t get sick. The doctor wants to see both babies in about 3 months. Yep, another doctor trying to get rid of us! It’s an epidemic I tell you!

So back to the OB appointment. We’re a little confused. We didn’t meet with any doctors, it was just our weekly cervix check. Ah, our good friend the cervix. One day I’ll look you up online and figure out what you really are, but for today, you are starting to piss us off. Basically every week we measure the length of Tobie’s cervix. Cervix shortening tells the doctors something is going on. Well this time, her cervix measured shorter than last time, but still long enough that it doesn’t hit the “worry threshold”. Here’s the thing about these exams, it’s kind of subjective. We had a different tech than the last time measure us so there is room for inconsistency.

The problem is, we’ve been down this road before. Last year with the trips Tobie’s cervix was nice and long with no change. Than at 19 weeks, it shortened by 1 cm or so, but still longer than the “worry threshold”. Then on her next weekly exam her cervix was gone. Do you see where I’m going here? Yeah we are a little freaked. Our nurse, who has been with us since last year told us not to freak out yet. Yeah last year Tobie was contracting more than most home builders (I still got it!). This pregnancy, she’s not contracting at all and feels pretty darn good all things considered. We’re supposed to get a call tomorrow from a doctor just to talk and get some reassurance. All things considered, if we didn’t have the perinatal history we have, this wouldn’t be a big deal and we would probably stroll along blissfully in this pregnancy. All of this just makes it difficult to really enjoy being pregnant.